SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us today.
SPEAKER_00: At Crosschurch, we believe people need Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: People need each other.
SPEAKER_00: People change the world.
SPEAKER_00: And people leave legacies.
SPEAKER_00: Our desire is for you to understand, accept, and grow in a relationship with Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening.
SPEAKER_00: If you would like to know more about Crosschurch, please visit CrossChurch.com.
SPEAKER_03: All right.
SPEAKER_03: Well, good morning, everybody.
SPEAKER_03: It is great to have all of our campuses uh join in this way.
SPEAKER_03: This is a One Church Sunday where we all link up together and we have one heart, one voice, and one message.
SPEAKER_03: And today's a little bit different.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, we're gonna be doing an entirely different kind of sermon today.
SPEAKER_03: And so if if today's your first day, come back next Sunday.
SPEAKER_03: All right.
SPEAKER_03: This this is odd.
SPEAKER_03: This is different than what we're doing uh normally during this part of the service.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, I or one of our teaching pastors would open up the word of God and we would share a sermon with you.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, today is a little bit different.
SPEAKER_03: I've asked our our teaching pastor and executive pastor, uh Ryan Blackwell, to join me on the stage today.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, if you're new, uh, you just heard a little bit about it from Jeff.
SPEAKER_03: But today is Ryan's last Sunday here uh at our church.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, he and his family will kind of be in transition mode for the next month or two.
SPEAKER_03: And so you may still see Ryan around here and there, but today's his official last day as he prepares to start at Lifeway here on uh on June 1st.
SPEAKER_03: But uh Ryan and I have known each other almost our entire lives.
SPEAKER_03: We met when we were two years old in the nursery at the Springdale campus.
SPEAKER_03: Y'all want to see some old pictures of us together?
SPEAKER_03: I'm sure you'd look at that.
SPEAKER_03: Oh look at that.
SPEAKER_03: Ryan, give what do you think about all that, man?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, me and a tie, Nick in a football jersey sounds about right.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: Uh also, Nick, Nick has had a long affection for white pants.
SPEAKER_02: Even on Easter Sunday this last year, if y'all were watching, it's in the blood.
SPEAKER_03: Still wearing it.
SPEAKER_03: It's in the blood.
SPEAKER_03: Evidently, Ryan just has a large head.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, that's also notable right there.
SPEAKER_03: But uh, we uh we were we were both raised in this church at the Springdale campus, as I mentioned.
SPEAKER_03: Um we were saved in the same revival at our church in the mid-90s.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, we were called to ministry around the same time.
SPEAKER_03: Ryan surrendered to the ministry a few months before I did, and we were sitting in a Sunday night service, uh, kind of in this section down at Springdale, and I remember the Lord just just dealing with me over a call to ministry and like a final surrender uh to walk forward and tell one of the pastors.
SPEAKER_03: And I'm standing next to Ryan discussing my call to ministry during the invitation while the music's going on.
SPEAKER_03: And I think even in that moment he encouraged me, I think you should go forward.
SPEAKER_03: And so I did.
SPEAKER_03: So we go way back, and uh people people say, don't hire your friends, and I could just not disagree more.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, we've had a fantastic experience together.
SPEAKER_03: Maybe you've had a bad one, and if so, I'm sorry for you.
SPEAKER_03: We've had a great one.
SPEAKER_03: Um, but a few weeks ago, as Jeff said, Ryan was announced as the new president and CEO of Life Way Christian Resources in Nashville.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, some of you may hear that and you say, Well, I don't even know what that is.
SPEAKER_03: We'll talk about that today, here in just a moment.
SPEAKER_03: But uh, as I said, this is normally the portion where we would open up the Bible, give you a sermon.
SPEAKER_03: Today we're gonna do that a little bit different because really what I want you to see is this is a sermon lived out in front of you today.
SPEAKER_03: And we're gonna walk through what does it look like to take a step of faith?
SPEAKER_03: What does it look like uh to wrestle, even as a pastor?
SPEAKER_03: What does it look like to wrestle through difficult times, through doubt, through fear, and uh still follow Jesus in the midst of all that?
SPEAKER_03: And so uh we were scheduled to start a new series today.
SPEAKER_03: So if you got your journals ready, you'll see that it says we're starting uh a series on spiritual warfare.
SPEAKER_03: We'll start that next Sunday.
SPEAKER_03: So this is gonna mess up your journal.
SPEAKER_03: And that's gonna mess up some of you in a real way.
SPEAKER_03: And I apologize, but it'll it'll uh mess up a few weeks, actually.
SPEAKER_03: So um let me uh let me set up today with one passage of scripture.
SPEAKER_03: Proverbs 16 9 says it this way The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.
SPEAKER_03: Anybody seen that take place in your own life?
SPEAKER_03: The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.
SPEAKER_03: Ryan, how have you seen that play out in your own life over the last few months together?
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'll I'll get there.
SPEAKER_02: Let me say one thing first.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, it really has been one of the greatest privileges of my life to not only serve this church, but to serve alongside my best friend.
SPEAKER_02: Uh Nick is an incredible leader, and I'm so grateful for it.
SPEAKER_02: Uh they they say, young in your early days, like who you pick as a friend matters.
SPEAKER_02: And can I just affirm that?
SPEAKER_02: Who you pick as a friend matters greatly.
SPEAKER_02: And I couldn't be more grateful that God.
SPEAKER_02: We were running that nursery back in the day, man.
SPEAKER_02: We did.
SPEAKER_02: Running.
SPEAKER_02: But uh that verse, it's interesting.
SPEAKER_02: Uh literally, I think it was about a month and a half, two months ago, I was preaching on this stage and and brought up that verse as a core piece.
SPEAKER_02: I think we were talking about Joseph's life at the time.
SPEAKER_02: But what the church didn't know was what I knew is that I was feeling every ounce of the weight of that voice, that verse personally, as we were wrestling with the Lord through this decision.
SPEAKER_02: And uh, you know, it's the reason I say that is I I would just say I have never desired or aspired to be the president and life of CEO of Lifeway Christian Resources.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, when one of my trusted mentors reached out to me months and months ago and said, Hey, I'd like to recommend you for this role.
SPEAKER_02: My first thought was, I don't think so.
SPEAKER_02: Like, I don't think that's right.
SPEAKER_02: Not because I didn't respect that the position at Lifeway or the opportunity to make a tremendous impact on the kingdom, but it was really just a sense of that's not my plan.
SPEAKER_02: You ever been there before?
SPEAKER_02: That's that's not my plan.
SPEAKER_02: I I love this church family.
SPEAKER_02: I love pastoring and teaching and and shepherding here.
SPEAKER_02: I love working with my best friend.
SPEAKER_02: My kids are thriving in this season, but that's just not my plan.
SPEAKER_02: But what we've come to learn really over the last two months specifically is that while it may not have been my plan, God had been establishing these steps a long time before this.
SPEAKER_02: I look back in my life, and I think sometimes, you know, when you're trying to make a decision, you want to know what's the will of God in front of me.
SPEAKER_02: And that's a that's a hard thing to do, but you can look back and you can often see, oh, there's the the fingerprint of God there.
SPEAKER_02: And there's the fingerprint of God there.
SPEAKER_02: And that's what we look back and see.
SPEAKER_02: For those of you that don't know my story, we we started out by pastoring in a in a small, you know, traditional church in Oklahoma.
SPEAKER_02: We then was part of a church plant in our very wealthy part of California, then went downtown San Francisco for a church revitalization, and then to Cross Church, a multi-site megachurch, my home church.
SPEAKER_02: And a lot of that journey, I kept thinking these things never seemed to go together.
SPEAKER_02: And now I look back and I'm like, okay, God was giving me a heart for his church in all of its different forms as I was stepping in that role.
SPEAKER_02: It may not have been my plan, but yeah, the Lord was establishing some steps.
SPEAKER_03: For sure.
SPEAKER_03: One of the things that Ryan and I want to take place in your own life today, as you hear his story, we want to connect the dots to your own life.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, one thing we both would affirm to you is that often when God wants to move in your life in a certain way in the future, he'll start exercising a muscle way back when.
SPEAKER_03: And he'll start exercising the muscle of faith.
SPEAKER_03: And so, Ryan, but before we even get to Nashville, let's talk about it.
SPEAKER_03: You went to seminary out in San Francisco, came back to Springdale campus for about a year as young adults minister, I believe.
SPEAKER_03: And then you recalled the first Baptist Church of San Francisco.
SPEAKER_03: Talk about the next decade or so of your life out there.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: Uh what Nick says, right, like stretching the muscle of faith that came early for us.
SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, First Baptist San Francisco was the oldest Protestant church on the West Coast.
SPEAKER_02: So it was founded in 1849 during the gold rush.
SPEAKER_03: For context, that's 21 years older than our church.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's an old church.
SPEAKER_02: So incredible history.
SPEAKER_02: But what had happened was the the pastor that was there before me was a very godly man, but got sick and was sick for about six years.
SPEAKER_02: And so, as you can imagine, was not able to be there.
SPEAKER_02: And during that time, the the church dwindled down, was facing just a just an uncertain future.
SPEAKER_02: It was it was unhealthy at the time.
SPEAKER_02: And so that's what we stepped into.
SPEAKER_02: And I at the time, I think I was 26 years old pastoring that church.
SPEAKER_02: And here's what I tell you that the first four years specifically were some of the hardest years of my life.
SPEAKER_02: Um, personally, you know, the church, again, they didn't have many kids where we were trying to raise kids in that church.
SPEAKER_02: We were very lonely in that.
SPEAKER_02: But what I would tell you is this it those four years of hard were God's, uh, I just say his place where he was forming us the most, yeah, helping us to learn what it looks like to really depend on the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Because every day I went into ministry in San Francisco, I realized this: I don't have any idea what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_02: I don't, I don't know what to do in these scenarios.
SPEAKER_02: And so just learn to depend deeply on the Holy Spirit's work of my life to give us what we needed.
SPEAKER_02: And so that was a really special season.
SPEAKER_02: About five years into that, we began to see a lot of momentum, a lot of salvations, growth in the church.
SPEAKER_02: And so by the time we left to come back, I mean, we were running about four to five hundred people every Sunday, over 40 different nations represented in that church.
SPEAKER_02: And so a really special place.
SPEAKER_02: One of the coolest things was on the front row every Sunday, you'd have the GM of the San Francisco Giants sitting right next to somebody from the homeless community.
SPEAKER_02: And that's the kind of church it was.
SPEAKER_02: Showed the power of the gospel to bring people together that otherwise wouldn't have any reason to be with one another.
SPEAKER_02: So really special church.
SPEAKER_02: They're still doing great.
SPEAKER_03: No doubt.
SPEAKER_03: And you've got some wild stories from your church experience there.
SPEAKER_03: Um, some of those are not appropriate for a Sunday morning gathering of church, but ask him outside of here, okay?
SPEAKER_03: Uh, we it's probably not appropriate for us to share some of those from the stage, but they're still funny.
SPEAKER_03: And uh give them a good San Francisco story before we move on.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I love it.
SPEAKER_02: So, Nick, anytime we go to dinner with him, Meredith is somebody else.
SPEAKER_02: This is one of Nick's party tricks.
SPEAKER_02: He said, Hey, Ryan, just tell the story, you know, tell San Francisco, whatever it is.
SPEAKER_02: And so I got a lot of them.
SPEAKER_02: I'll give you one that is just, I think, representative of uh what life in that church was like, especially early on.
SPEAKER_02: Early on, we didn't have um a great security team like we do here at Cross Church.
SPEAKER_02: We we grew one later, but on those early Sundays, you just never knew what was gonna happen on a Sunday.
SPEAKER_02: And so one Sunday in particular, we were doing a communion Sunday.
SPEAKER_02: So we had the communion table right at the front at the altar.
SPEAKER_02: I was ending the sermon.
SPEAKER_02: We were moving into an invitation time where we were going to take communion together.
SPEAKER_02: And so I said, you know, everybody around the room, let's all bow our heads, close our eyes.
SPEAKER_02: And so everybody did that.
SPEAKER_02: And out of the back of the room, I began to see one person stand up.
SPEAKER_02: He begins to walk down the aisle.
SPEAKER_02: And here's the only way that I I could describe him.
SPEAKER_02: He truly was trying to look like Michael Jackson.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so like he had one glove, like walking down.
SPEAKER_02: I was surprised he wasn't moonwalking back down the aisle.
SPEAKER_02: That would have been even more exciting.
SPEAKER_02: I would have been.
SPEAKER_02: But he comes up, and the whole time I'm thinking, oh no, what's this gonna be?
SPEAKER_02: What's this gonna be?
SPEAKER_02: What's this?
SPEAKER_02: No one else is looking, so I'm the only one that sees this happening.
SPEAKER_02: He gets to the front of the altar, right in front of the communion table, and all of a sudden he just hits his knees and he just does this.
SPEAKER_02: And so I'm like, all right, my brother's just praying.
SPEAKER_02: This is good, this is gonna be fine.
SPEAKER_02: That was short-lived.
SPEAKER_02: He all of a sudden looks up at me and we make eye contact, and as quickly as he can, he begins to down all of the communion elements.
SPEAKER_02: So, like, I'm talking the bread, the the juice, like just starts downning it.
SPEAKER_02: No one else is seeing that.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm thinking, how how what am I about to do?
SPEAKER_02: Like, how do I lead through this moment?
SPEAKER_02: And so finally, I'm I'm I get eye contact with one of our leaders, and I'm like pointing.
SPEAKER_02: And one of our guys comes up and he puts his hand on his shoulder.
SPEAKER_02: If you've ever been around somebody that's a little bit out of their mind, you know you don't really want to touch them.
SPEAKER_02: He touches them, and this person stands up, and by this point, everybody's looking because it was he stands up in a loud way, and there's this little 85-year-old woman sitting on the front row, and at the top of his lungs, he begins to cuss, and then he looks at her and he says, You killed my father.
SPEAKER_02: Now, what are you supposed to do as a leader of a church in that moment?
SPEAKER_02: Y'all tell me, like, how am I supposed to go into communion after that?
SPEAKER_02: We didn't.
SPEAKER_02: We just uh we picked him up and we carried him out.
SPEAKER_02: That's just one story of many that I could tell.
SPEAKER_02: That's great.
SPEAKER_03: This is the third time I've heard it today, and I still enjoy it every time.
SPEAKER_02: It's it's amazing.
SPEAKER_02: You know, Pastor Nick did come out with his book, and I do hope everybody will go out and buy it.
SPEAKER_02: If I ever buy a book, it won't be on anything spiritual, it'll be about those moments.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, right there.
SPEAKER_02: Bestseller.
SPEAKER_02: That's great.
SPEAKER_02: I love it.
SPEAKER_03: So you're there uh almost a decade.
SPEAKER_03: And um March of 2019.
SPEAKER_03: Um I I know some things are happening here at the church.
SPEAKER_03: I know my dad's about to leave and I'm about to be voted on.
SPEAKER_03: And so uh I take a risk.
SPEAKER_03: I'm not even voted in yet, but Meredith and I booked tickets and I fly to San Francisco, both of us fly to San Francisco to try to convince you to come back home and become the executive pastor, also a teaching pastor.
SPEAKER_03: Um, talk about the journey of faith and really that muscle, again, was being flexed and worked on right there, the muscle of faith to come back home at that season.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it was that was a unique season.
SPEAKER_02: You know, I think a lot of people thought it was a no-brainer when we came back here.
SPEAKER_02: This is the church that that helped raise me, our family was here.
SPEAKER_02: But I what I would just say is like it was the furthest thing from a no-brainer for us at the moment.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, because you got to think about it.
SPEAKER_02: For years and years we had toiled and hard work, hard work, and we were just seeing the fruit.
SPEAKER_02: The church was growing, the church was healthy, like everything that we had been praying for and working for was happening in that moment.
SPEAKER_02: And that's when you made that first call.
SPEAKER_02: That's when you came.
SPEAKER_02: And uh, I'll never forget, we were at a restaurant.
SPEAKER_02: Nick hands me a list of 10 reasons we needed to come back to Cross Church.
SPEAKER_02: And and and honestly, and a lot of pride on my part.
SPEAKER_02: I was reading it, I was thinking, no, I no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_02: Like, we can't do this.
SPEAKER_02: But the guy began to do a process in our heart.
SPEAKER_02: One thing about Nick that if you've never really been around him, what you'll learn is he is persistent, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Like every time we would be like, No, Nick, we don't think we're supposed to do that.
SPEAKER_02: He said, We don't have to say no yet.
SPEAKER_02: This is just a conversation.
SPEAKER_02: Let's just keep the conversation going.
SPEAKER_03: I I got married the same way.
SPEAKER_03: Let's say you don't have to say no.
SPEAKER_03: Just we're just talking right now.
SPEAKER_03: And eventually she wore down and said yes.
SPEAKER_03: Eventually we wore down too.
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: So uh, and so we began to to just wrestle with the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: And I just encourage you, for those of you who have who are in the middle of trying to make a big decision, the Lord doesn't always speak in the same way.
SPEAKER_02: So I'm about to share in a moment how he called us to life way, and it was in a very clear way.
SPEAKER_02: When we moved back here, we really didn't have that.
SPEAKER_02: We knew two things that the Lord would be with us, and the word from God was just use wisdom.
SPEAKER_02: Use the wisdom I've given you.
SPEAKER_02: And so as we wrestled through it, man, we just looked at the opportunity to come back to that home church and pour into it to come next to Nick.
SPEAKER_02: But also for me, it was I looked at that, some of the other men on this church staff team, and I was sitting in a room with you and those men as we were praying through this, and I just thought, man, I want to become more like them.
SPEAKER_02: I want to become more godly like them.
SPEAKER_02: I want to become more humble and gentle of a leader like them.
SPEAKER_02: And so through all that, God called us back here.
SPEAKER_02: And can I just say I am sure glad he did?
SPEAKER_02: Uh, the last six years to get to be part of this movement of God here at Cross Church has been such a blessing.
SPEAKER_02: I I can't imagine had we not come back.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, dive into that a little bit more.
SPEAKER_03: Just God's movement in your own heart and in the life of your family over the last six years.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, one of the one of the biggest things has been all three of our kids have have come into a personal relationship with Jesus over these last six years.
SPEAKER_02: Our oldest is uh 16 years old, son.
SPEAKER_02: He he gave his life to Christ during COVID.
SPEAKER_02: Uh our middle daughter Allie, two years after that, and then our youngest daughter, May, uh, just this last fall.
SPEAKER_02: And so to see what God has done in them has been one of the greatest blessings for Rachel and I.
SPEAKER_02: Because when I say my kids, they love Jesus like they love Jesus and they love this church and they've served, they pour out their heart in that.
SPEAKER_02: They've got godly friends.
SPEAKER_02: And so when I think of one word for our family during the six years back at Cross Church, it's just the word thriving, flourishing.
SPEAKER_02: Every single one of us to see Rachel move even more into her gift set and the way that God's wired her to be used for ministry.
SPEAKER_02: And then for me, I just realized I think I was really tired.
SPEAKER_02: Um, I don't think I fully realized I realized it at the time, but those 10 years at San Francisco had taken a lot out of me.
SPEAKER_02: And so to come back and just to see what God's done here has just been such a healing, rejuvenating thing for us.
SPEAKER_02: Really grateful.
SPEAKER_02: It's great.
SPEAKER_03: Let's get to Nashville.
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
SPEAKER_03: So um many people are wondering, well, why is Ryan leaving for Lifeway?
SPEAKER_03: And in fact, what is Lifeway?
SPEAKER_03: People are people are wondering that.
SPEAKER_03: So give them the breadth and the scope of the ministry called Life Way.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I would say number one, I get it.
SPEAKER_02: If you're asking the question, uh we've wrestled with that same thing.
SPEAKER_02: But if you ask your average person, especially here in Northwest Arkansas, you know, what is Lifeway Christian resources?
SPEAKER_02: Your first thought is probably, I think that's the bookstore that closed that used to be in the promenade, right?
SPEAKER_02: Like in other words, Ryan, are you going to a sinking ship of a book, you know, uh book place where you can do that?
SPEAKER_02: Let me just be clear.
SPEAKER_02: That's not really what LifeWay is.
SPEAKER_02: That was a piece of what Lifeway did, but but LifeWay is so much bigger than that.
SPEAKER_02: Um, here's the best way to think about it LifeWay is the resourcing arm for Southern Baptist churches and church leaders.
SPEAKER_02: And really it goes beyond even Southern Baptists, but that's the core of what they do.
SPEAKER_02: And so that comes out in a few unique ways.
SPEAKER_02: One would be um ongoing discipleship curriculum.
SPEAKER_02: And so we use that here at Cross Church for preschool and kids and women's Bible studies, and many of our adult groups use it use it as well.
SPEAKER_02: And so uh across the country, there are about 30,000 churches every single Sunday morning that are using LifeWay discipleship resources to help disciple their people, about 3.5 million people every Sunday morning.
SPEAKER_02: So that that's a big piece of what they do.
SPEAKER_02: Uh another big wing of LifeWay is camps.
SPEAKER_02: So camps for students and for kids.
SPEAKER_02: They're called Centrifuge, Central Kids, uh Student Life Camp.
SPEAKER_02: You got to realize, church family, you know, Cross Church, we are so blessed.
SPEAKER_02: We have the ability to do our own camps and throw those ourselves.
SPEAKER_02: Most churches across America are 200 people or less.
SPEAKER_02: And so they can't do what we are able to do.
SPEAKER_02: And so Lifeway resources churches by throwing these camps this summer.
SPEAKER_02: We have about 125,000 students that will go to those camps.
SPEAKER_02: Last summer, over 6,500 professions of faith, 900 called to ministry.
SPEAKER_02: And so that's a big piece of it.
SPEAKER_02: Vacation Bible School, if you've ever heard of that.
SPEAKER_02: Also, that was created by LifeWay over 100 years ago.
SPEAKER_02: Um, last summer, 67,000 kids made a profession of faith.
SPEAKER_02: And so an amazing resource of churches in that way.
SPEAKER_02: And then the last way uh would be what you knew as the bookstores.
SPEAKER_02: So there's a publishing wing, which is devotionals, uh, resources for pastors and church leaders.
SPEAKER_02: And then the big one is just this way it's the CSB, the Christian Standard Bible.
SPEAKER_02: Um, they put the word of God out for millions of people every year so that they can hear the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: And so when you think of Lifeway, don't think of it as the sinking ship, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Think of it as a behind-the-scenes, disciple-making kingdom pipeline of the next generation of pastors and leaders and ministers and church members.
SPEAKER_02: That's what I want to give my life to because this church has been passionate about that for a long time.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, no doubt.
SPEAKER_03: So um so Ryan had had brought me in several months ago and just said, Hey, Lifeway called me.
SPEAKER_03: He said, But I told him no, like, not interested.
SPEAKER_03: And so we go on, and then I had been out of town, and it was a Sunday night.
SPEAKER_03: He texted me and said, Hey, I need to run a few things by you in the morning before our other meeting.
SPEAKER_03: I said, That's fine, it's not abnormal.
SPEAKER_03: And uh, we sit down and he goes, All right, I need to bring you along on something.
SPEAKER_03: And my literal response was uh oh.
SPEAKER_03: Like I just I knew something was up.
SPEAKER_03: So pick up the ball from there and just talk about in detail really the Lord's call upon your life towards this.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: When I say it was a wrestle with the Lord, it it has been a major wrestle.
SPEAKER_02: Um you know, when they approached us, you know, we heard, you know, a long time ago, hey, would you be interested?
SPEAKER_02: We didn't hear anything back until really November, December of last year.
SPEAKER_02: And they they said, Ryan, you know, we we know you say you don't want the job, but we'd like you to meet with us one time.
SPEAKER_02: And so this was a search committee uh on behalf of Life Way.
SPEAKER_02: And so you said I said, I'll be happy to meet with you, but I just want to be very clear.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not your guy.
SPEAKER_02: That's what I told them.
SPEAKER_02: I said, I really don't believe we're your guy.
SPEAKER_02: I know you've got great candidates from around the country.
SPEAKER_02: We're really happy where we're at.
SPEAKER_02: This is, you know, our plan is to stay.
SPEAKER_02: And so I went and met with him.
SPEAKER_02: And honestly, it was the the most free I have ever been in one of those settings because I went in not wanting the job, right?
SPEAKER_02: Like uh I could say whatever I want to say because at the end of the day, I didn't think I was that guy.
SPEAKER_02: But there was a a very tangible moment toward the end of that meeting where for the for the first time I thought, oh no, God, God may be calling us to this.
SPEAKER_02: And so we came out of that meeting, we continued praying, and and really we were still a no up until about what was about two months ago.
SPEAKER_02: And uh we were ready to give them our final no.
SPEAKER_02: Um, we were going into the final week, and they had asked us, hey, let's spend one more week praying through this.
SPEAKER_02: And so we really had that final no on the table.
SPEAKER_02: And uh we said, Lord, we are trying to be faithful in this.
SPEAKER_02: I would imagine all of you have been there.
SPEAKER_02: Well, you you don't know exactly what the Lord's willing to do, but you're trying to be faithful.
SPEAKER_02: God, would you just speak to us?
SPEAKER_02: And so we prayed specifically for two things.
SPEAKER_02: I was going Going on a spiritual retreat with a group of pastors that week.
SPEAKER_02: And so before I left, Rachel and I prayed for two things.
SPEAKER_02: Number one, that God would speak to us clearly through his word.
SPEAKER_02: That's the clearest way that God has spoken in our life.
SPEAKER_02: So, God, would you speak through the word of God?
SPEAKER_02: The second thing that we said though, Lord is, Lord, if you'd be in your kindness so gracious, would you send somebody that it doesn't even know that we're walking through this to speak a word of wisdom or counsel to us?
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: We thought that was a pretty big prayer.
SPEAKER_02: If God's going to do that, that would be a little bit miraculous.
SPEAKER_02: So we're just going to throw it out there.
SPEAKER_02: And so that Monday, I was about to go on that retreat, and right before I leave, I get a text from one of our church staff members.
SPEAKER_02: Um, she leads one of the women's ministries in our in our team.
SPEAKER_02: And she said, Hey, Ryan, can can I meet with you before you leave this morning?
SPEAKER_02: I was like, Well, sure.
SPEAKER_02: I thought maybe it was a church situation that she needed to talk through.
SPEAKER_02: And she comes into that meeting, and I'll never forget it.
SPEAKER_02: We were in uh Jeff Crawford's office there at this campus at Pinnacle Hills, and she says, I don't know how to tell you this, but one week ago, I was asleep and the Lord woke me up out of my sleep and had a very specific word that I was to give you and Rachel.
SPEAKER_02: I was like, Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_02: And uh she said, I've wrestled with this all week long because I've thought it was weird.
SPEAKER_02: This isn't a normal thing.
SPEAKER_02: I didn't want you to think I was weird, but this morning, I I literally I cannot move forward without giving you what the Lord uh really has told me to tell you.
SPEAKER_02: And so she hands me a uh postcard, and we'll keep it forever.
SPEAKER_02: Um, but here's what the postcard said it says, obedience always comes at a cost.
SPEAKER_02: Count the cost, but in that obedience, you will bear much fruit.
SPEAKER_02: And she hands me this card.
SPEAKER_02: Now, what she didn't realize was the word that Rachel and I had been hung up on for weeks was the cost.
SPEAKER_02: The cost to our three kids who are in middle school and high school.
SPEAKER_02: It's not an ideal time to move.
SPEAKER_02: The cost to a friendship and a church that we love, the the personal cost with everything we'd be losing.
SPEAKER_02: And so this word, the cost, was over and over again, and this is what she hands me.
SPEAKER_02: Now, the good news for me in that moment was it did not say go to life way.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so I felt pretty good about that.
SPEAKER_02: And it still doesn't say go to life way, but we'll see.
SPEAKER_02: And so we took that and we just said, okay, Lord, we we hear you, but we need you to confirm it through the word of God.
SPEAKER_02: And so I went to that retreat, and Gary Oliver was leading the retreat that week, and he said, Hey guys, I know all of you do different things in your own personal times with God, but for this one week, I just want you to jump into something I do every day.
SPEAKER_02: It's called Lectio 365, and I want you to do it with me.
SPEAKER_02: And I thought, okay, you know, I'm asking the Lord to speak.
SPEAKER_02: I'm desperate to hear from him.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe he'll use this.
SPEAKER_02: Well, let me just kind of recount the next seven days.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, I'm not gonna read all the devotionals, I promise.
SPEAKER_02: But let me just give you a gist of what they were.
SPEAKER_02: Day one, the next morning I wake up, and here was the devotional heading Jesus the disruptor.
SPEAKER_02: And it was about this.
SPEAKER_02: It was about Jesus calling his disciples out of their comfortable boat to join him in the unknown, furthering his kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: Day two, I wake up the next morning.
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, okay, Lord, I heard you day one.
SPEAKER_02: Day two, title was wrestling with God.
SPEAKER_02: It was about being fearful, wrestling with God, and walking out with confidence in what he was calling you to do.
SPEAKER_02: Day three was on Luke 9, 57 through 62, about Jesus calling his disciples to follow him urgently into the unknown, leaving behind family and all other matters for his greater kingdom called.
SPEAKER_02: Now, what you need to realize is both of our families are here in Northwest Arkansas, okay?
SPEAKER_02: The next day, Genesis 12.
SPEAKER_02: Now the Lord said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I was going to show you.
SPEAKER_02: Now, by this point, I'm like, I've had enough, Lord, right?
SPEAKER_02: Like you've been there, like, God, I I asked you to speak to me clearly, and it's like day after day.
SPEAKER_02: But here's what I want you to understand.
SPEAKER_02: I think sometimes you think we as pastors don't struggle with the same things you do: fear, uncertainty, doubt, feelings of inadequacy.
SPEAKER_02: Like I'm just telling you, when I say I was fearful, during this week, I did not sleep at all.
SPEAKER_02: I had a weird eye twitch thing.
SPEAKER_02: Like, like I was so afraid to make this decision.
SPEAKER_02: But in the Lord's kindness, what did he do?
SPEAKER_02: He kept pursuing us.
SPEAKER_02: The next day, Isaiah 42, verse 16 was the verse.
SPEAKER_02: I will lead the blind by ways they have not known.
SPEAKER_02: Along unfamiliar paths, I will guide them.
SPEAKER_02: I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth.
SPEAKER_02: The next day was Esther Ford.
SPEAKER_02: Who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
SPEAKER_02: All of this culminated with us going to Franklin, Tennessee, which is where we're going to be living.
SPEAKER_02: The headquarters is there in Brentwood, Tennessee.
SPEAKER_02: And we're sitting in a beautiful setting.
SPEAKER_02: We're in downtown Franklin.
SPEAKER_02: If you've ever been there, you know how beautiful it is.
SPEAKER_02: It should be peaceful.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm not kidding, I'm in the car and I'm having a panic attack.
SPEAKER_02: They've offered me the job by this point.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm thinking, God, I cannot do this.
SPEAKER_02: And Rachel looks at me, and she had joined in on the Lectio 365 by this point.
SPEAKER_02: And she said, Ryan, did you read that one, that devotional this morning?
SPEAKER_02: And I hadn't.
SPEAKER_02: I had moved back to my normal what I do.
SPEAKER_02: And she said, Let me read you what the verse was.
SPEAKER_02: It was Joshua 1.9.
SPEAKER_02: Have I not commanded you, be strong and courageous, do not be frightened and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is going to go with you wherever you go.
SPEAKER_02: That is the verse that God had called me to ministry in when I was a teenager.
SPEAKER_02: The same exact verse.
SPEAKER_02: And so by this point, church, it was no longer good versus better.
SPEAKER_02: It was God saying, Ryan, are you gonna obey me?
SPEAKER_02: Are you gonna trust me?
SPEAKER_02: Like, are you gonna trust me with your kids?
SPEAKER_02: Are you gonna trust me with your future?
SPEAKER_02: Are you gonna trust me with this the riskiness of the Southern Baptist Convention and all that it's walking through?
SPEAKER_02: Will you trust me?
SPEAKER_02: And in that moment in that car, Rachel and I said, Yeah, yes, God, we we trust you with all those things.
SPEAKER_02: And from that moment on, we've had just supernatural peace.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
SPEAKER_03: Well, I don't know about you, church, but as you hear all of that, I still don't think it's very clear.
SPEAKER_03: I I don't I text them last night and said, It's not too late.
SPEAKER_03: You could still um, you know, I I I joke, but this is a big loss for our church.
SPEAKER_03: And I think if you've been around here, you're you kind of you kind of sense that and know that.
SPEAKER_03: You so many of you know him for what he does on this stage and our other stages of preaching, which is a powerful part of what he does.
SPEAKER_03: But even beyond that, the internal nature of what he does for our staff and organization and planning and all that is like a it's just a massive thing.
SPEAKER_03: And so you you may be here today and you're like, okay, well, you know, I'm listening to Ryan, but what does this mean for us as a church?
SPEAKER_03: Let me like briefly touch on that, just more just as an FYI in case you're wondering that.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, you may be wondering even, well, are we gonna add a preacher to the mix uh because of Ryan's departure?
SPEAKER_03: We don't have that in mind right now.
SPEAKER_03: That may change, you know, in the next few months, but as of right now, uh, we think we can get by without doing that.
SPEAKER_03: Um, but internally on the everyday type of stuff, uh, what Ryan does is really gonna be split between four people.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, and that's the that's the domino effect.
SPEAKER_03: And so let me let me share with you some men of God that really I think God has been preparing us for at least 18 months, and some of this many, many years before for this moment.
SPEAKER_03: But uh Ryan serves as our executive pastor, which is my right-hand guy running a lot of the day-to-day ministry.
SPEAKER_03: Phil McMichael will step into that role.
SPEAKER_03: You'll see Phil's picture there at the top.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, Phil was our Fayetteville campus pastor back in the day, right alongside of me.
SPEAKER_03: He has been working right alongside of Ryan and I, running our campuses, campus pastors, all that.
SPEAKER_03: So he is well equipped and ready for this uh this job, a godly, godly man and great leader.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, you see Nick Bethay right there.
SPEAKER_03: Nick just moved out of the Fayetteville campus pastor role not too long ago.
SPEAKER_03: He now runs leadership development for our entire team, uh, as well as any new campuses he's been a part of.
SPEAKER_03: So, like Highway 62, he's been intimately involved in that for the first two and a half months.
SPEAKER_03: And now he's just now kind of taking a step back to be thinking about what's next.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, Dave Kinney is right there in the middle.
SPEAKER_03: Dave was actually raised at Pinnacle Hills and uh called to ministry later post-college uh at our church.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, Dave was at a church in Houston as an executive pastor that the church just exploded.
SPEAKER_03: And so we brought Dave back to serve actually in a different role entirely, not knowing that Ryan was going to be leaving.
SPEAKER_03: And so when we found that out, it kind of shuffled every plan we had for Dave.
SPEAKER_03: And Dave will now come and he will take over much of what Phil McMichael was doing previously.
SPEAKER_03: And then you know, Mark, Mark preaches often here, and uh, Mark will also come alongside of us as a next gen pastor.
SPEAKER_03: When we say next gen, it means next generation ministry.
SPEAKER_03: So, really birth all the way through young adults.
SPEAKER_03: Mark will be in the mix with Dave running events for that, VBS, camp, all that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, so Mark will move into a bigger role as well.
SPEAKER_03: So thank God that he's provided for us already.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, but definitely some dominoes that are falling and shifts that are taking place uh within our own team.
SPEAKER_03: Uh Ryan, let's uh let's kind of move towards closure like this.
SPEAKER_03: We uh we always talk about making the local church central to your life, like your best friends being a part of your church and all that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_03: Uh talk about how you moving out of the pastorate and being just a Christian family now, yeah.
SPEAKER_03: Having to find a church, talk about that process, but talk about it quickly because we're out of time.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's it's it's interesting.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, this is the first time in our entire marriage that we're gonna be going to church together.
SPEAKER_02: Even that we're trying to figure out.
SPEAKER_02: I like to be there early.
SPEAKER_02: She shows up first song, so we'll see how that goes.
SPEAKER_02: Um, but like one of the main decisions we were gonna make.
SPEAKER_02: I think when you move, a lot of times you think, where are we gonna live?
SPEAKER_02: Where are our kids gonna go to school?
SPEAKER_02: The very first thing that Rachel and I did was try to figure out what church are we going to go to.
SPEAKER_02: Because our main goal as a family is to put our kids in what we would just call spiritually fertile ground.
SPEAKER_02: I think that's a phrase that you've used before.
SPEAKER_02: And so we wanted the church to be at the center of that.
SPEAKER_02: And so we're choosing where we live by a church.
SPEAKER_02: We're choosing where our kids go to school by a church.
SPEAKER_02: And so it's the central thing.
SPEAKER_02: We want our kids to be serving, we want to be active.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna be preaching at a lot of churches across the country in my role, but on the weeks that I'm there, I just want to get involved.
SPEAKER_02: I want to serve in whatever way that that pastor that that church needs.
SPEAKER_02: And so that's a big piece of our decision.
SPEAKER_03: I love it.
SPEAKER_03: I I know one of the concerns you have leaving is really leaving kind of a prayer covering where it's natural for people to pray for you because you're preaching early.
SPEAKER_03: Talk about how the church can be praying for you in these days.
SPEAKER_02: I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_02: We we need prayer.
SPEAKER_02: Um, I would number one, for me, just pray for uh a supernatural anointing for this role.
SPEAKER_02: It's a it's a big role.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, 800 employees, the the reach of this, and here's what I've learned in ministry.
SPEAKER_02: I have nothing to offer apart from the anointing of God found in my daily walk with him.
SPEAKER_02: And so, man, would you just pray for supernatural power to live out that task?
SPEAKER_02: For our family, would you pray for protection?
SPEAKER_02: Um, anytime you step into a role that you're trying to further the Great Commission, the enemy is going to be on the attack.
SPEAKER_02: And so, would you just pray for me, my wife, Rachel, and our three kids, Brady, Allie, and May?
SPEAKER_03: Yep.
SPEAKER_03: I love it.
SPEAKER_03: Um, I'm gonna give you the last word today.
SPEAKER_03: Anything that you want to tell your home church as uh as you depart.
SPEAKER_02: I I mean, real simple, church family, we love you.
SPEAKER_02: Like this family, this church family has meant the world to me my entire life, and it continues to be our church family.
SPEAKER_02: And so I just say thank you.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you for the tremendous investment that you've made into me and to our family over these last six plus years.
SPEAKER_02: But I hope today, my prayer for this morning, it's a weird Sunday where you're hearing a lot of our story.
SPEAKER_02: My prayer for you this morning was that the Lord would turn it on to you.
SPEAKER_02: Because if anything, here's what I hope Rachel and I and our family has been a picture of living open-handed before the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Like, God, what do you want us to do?
SPEAKER_02: Our yes is on the table for whatever it is that you're calling us to do.
SPEAKER_02: And here's what I'd challenge you: what's your yes?
SPEAKER_02: It may not be a big move, it may not be a new position, but what's the yes that God is calling you to do?
SPEAKER_02: There's a yes for every single one of you.
SPEAKER_02: And a lot of times I often hear the Christian life is a little bit boring.
SPEAKER_02: It's only boring if you're living close-handed with the work of God.
SPEAKER_02: If you will open your life to his spirit and his leadership, I can promise you it will be an adventure.
SPEAKER_02: And so I pray for you this morning as you hear my story that God may challenge you to say yes.
SPEAKER_03: Yep, I love it.
SPEAKER_03: Well, um, Rachel, I'm gonna ask you to come up here.
SPEAKER_03: Meredith, why don't you come up as well if you don't mind?
SPEAKER_03: And I'm gonna ask Buster to come up and uh church, we're gonna send them out as a church.
SPEAKER_03: And so we're gonna pray together over the Blackwells.
SPEAKER_03: And Buster, you uh you lead us.
SPEAKER_03: Meredith, why don't you come over here?
SPEAKER_01: We love you.
SPEAKER_01: Let me pray for you.
SPEAKER_01: Today, Lord, we know this that it's not by might or by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And we know this idea, this whole idea that Ryan would leave the things that he loves to go out and reach the world in a new way is by the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_01: So I pray the anointing of God the Holy Spirit would be so evident in their life that they would just walk in the Spirit in a joyful, peaceful, comforting way.
SPEAKER_01: I pray for their children, I pray for their new school that kids there will accept them and they will become friends quickly.
SPEAKER_01: I pray for this new church that he's going in.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I pray it would be just right for their family.
SPEAKER_01: And as Ryan, Lord, steps into an incredibly busy and difficult, yes, it's a difficult role.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that his leadership would just really excel.
SPEAKER_01: And I pray that as he makes decisions that can affect millions of people, I pray, Lord, that the Holy Spirit would go before him and that every step he takes, he can look back and say, as he has this morning already, God led me there.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to go with me.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, I thank you for them.
SPEAKER_01: I love them.
SPEAKER_01: He's been a personal friend, a great leader to me these years.
SPEAKER_01: And I pray for him.
SPEAKER_01: And then, Lord, I pray for Nick and Meredith.
SPEAKER_01: I pray, Lord, that the big giant hole that's left with Ryan leaving this platform today would be filled with the joy of the Lord, yes.
SPEAKER_01: And the comfort of the Lord, yes, and the confidence of the Lord, yes.
SPEAKER_01: And I pray, Lord, that the anointing that has begun six years ago, six and a half now, almost seven, here as the leader of our church would excel and would just keep abounding for the presence of God to be here every time he steps on this platform.
SPEAKER_01: And we pray this, believing that you are the great God of the universe.
SPEAKER_01: And so what are we to say when you say go?
SPEAKER_01: And we thank you in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: Church family, can we uh show our appreciation for the Black Wells right now?
SPEAKER_00: If you have questions about what you have heard or would like more information about your relationship with Jesus, please email us at info at crosschurch.com or visit our website at crosschurch.com.
SPEAKER_00: At Crosschurch, our mission is to reach Northwest Arkansas, America, and the world for Jesus Christ.